Cross Training (3 views) Subscribe   
   From:  David (DavidABrown)    Mar-18 3:52 pm  
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Cross Training
Bryan Hupperts
Mar 18, 2004

 
SheepTrax is an ezine of humor, insight, and Christian teaching featuring the wit, wisdom and deepthinking of Bryan Hupperts. Bryan is the author of numerous newspaper and magazine articles, as well as the book, "A Raven's Gift." Help Bryan feed his sheep. Buy this book! Click to order: http://www.sheeptrax.com/html/sheepstore.html Please forward this message! 
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March 17, 2004 
Cross Training 

Hi, SheepTrax! 

SheepTrax Digest Undercover Investigations decided to look into the often-confusing world of Discipleship training. 

Late night TV Christian infomercials promise everything from releasing to "faith partners only" God's 7 Keys to make me rich, to using the "secret codes" of the Bible to generate unimaginable wealth in the stock market, to How To Follow Jesus Without Pain, Sacrifice, or Inconvenience (they were selling a produced called Salvation Lite!). 

Gotta wonder what the Apostle Paul would have penned in a hotly worded epistle to the aberrant, heresy hungry American church. 

Anyway, let's start with a definition. A disciple is one who has disciplined themselves for a cause. Therefore, being a disciple of anything has its roots in discipline. So much for so-called "Salvation Lite." 

Is Discipleship a 13-week course you take as part of Sunday school? Or is it an ongoing daily process of yielding to God the Holy Spirit who exposes the dead flesh within us all, points us to the Cross, and births Sweet Overcoming Life in those places of corruption he has exposed bringing us finally to liberty and freedom in Christ? 

Among the myriad of infomercials competing for my love-offering dollar, one stood out. The trainer, who simply called himself Bill (as that was his name), was demoing a spiritual workout device that looked downright dangerous, even deadly. He was preaching about the greatest Discipleship tool device ever devised: The Cross! 

Bill said, "Sure, we admit it, the Cross is a dangerous workout tool, but I ask: How can you be an in-shape disciple without it? You see all sorts of discipleship toys on TV church and in your local Christian bookstore, but if you want to really be fit to flow Jesus, there is only one way, one Cross. It is the cost we pay daily to follow Jesus. It is the Cross that makes us fit for the King!" 

Suddenly a PowerPoint popped on the TV screen. Bill had my attention as he narrated over this verse, Luke 14:27, "And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." No Cross, No Discipleship. 

Bill continued, "The Cross is the only tool with Jesus' personal stamp of approval for Discipleship training. While it's not popular theology, God's operations are designed to kill the patient. Kill, you ask? Yes, the Cross is an instrument of death. Its sole purpose is to kill the wearer. Doesn't sound much like 'Jesus loves you and has a wonderful plan for you life,' does it?" 

The scene cut to a group of people who were giving radiant testimonies of how embracing the Cross brought death to the god of self who really ruled in their lives. Surprisingly, all looked invigorated and seemed pulsing with divine Life. 

Bill smiled gently as audience members begin asking questions about the Cross. One timid young man said, "But I might get hurt." Bill replied, "The Cross is not there to hurt you, son. It is there to bring death to that rebel you call your "self" in order that Christ might be formed in you. It is the most exquisite pain you can ever know. The Cross is about exposing our weakness for what it is: weakness." 

More PowerPoint verses: 2Corinthians 12:9, "And He (Jesus) said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 

Hebrews 10:36, "For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise." The Cross Gives Endurance Training! 

2Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." The Cross is the Christian's Secret Weapon Against The World, The Flesh, And The Devil. 

Bill looked right into the camera in an extreme close-up and began to close the sale. "So what does the Cross cost you? You may have seen imitation Discipleship tools, toys really, selling on Christian TV for $299.99. But isn't not $299.99, or even $199.99; no friends, not even $9.99. Put your checkbooks away. Operators aren't standing by, but Jesus is. The Cross costs you  everything." 

Finally, a Christian product that actually works! 


Bryan Hupperts  2004 
SheepTrax Media  
PO Box 270256 
St. Louis, MO 63127 USA 
deepsheep@sheeptrax.com 
www.SheepTrax.com 
http://www.sheeptrax.injesus.com



David A. Brown
Basic Christian: Forum
www.BasicChristian.org

 
 
